Old Fox (老狐狸) led the trophy haul at the Golden Horse Awards ceremony on Saturday evening, winning Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Film Score and Best Makeup and Costume Design awards.
Old Fox depicts the story of a young single father and his son leading a frugal life to save for a house of their own, but persistent financial hardship and an encounter with a selfish landlord gradually pushes the family to take a different path.
Taiwanese filmmaker Hsiao Ya-chuan (蕭雅全) was honored with the Best Director award for his latest feature film.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
The 55-year-old director expressed gratitude to his cast and crew, and also thanked renowned director Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢) for being the producer of Old Fox and his previous three feature movies, adding that Hou’s involvements had motivated him to do his utmost.
Other directors also nominated were Chinese-Japanese directing duo Huang Ji (黃驥) and Ryuji Otsuka for their second collaboration Stonewalling (石門) and Malaysian filmmaker Chong Keat Aun (張吉安) for Snow in Midsummer (五月雪).
Taiwanese director Cheng Wei-hao (程偉豪) and Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Ching-po (黃精甫) were nominated for their supernatural comedy Marry My Dead Body (關於我和鬼變成家人的那件事) and action/crime movie The Pig, the Snake and the Pigeon (周處除三害), respectively.
Stonewalling, a documentary-like drama capturing the angst and helplessness of a young student having to resign herself to fate after a chance pregnancy, was named best narrative feature.
The film, the finale of Huang’s trilogy that looks into the struggles of young Chinese women in the country’s rural areas, also won the Best Film Editing award.
The battle for best leading actor saw Taiwanese actor Wu Kang-ren (吳慷仁) come out on top for his performance in the Malaysian drama Abang Adik (富都青年), directed by Lay Jin Ong (王禮霖), while 12-year-old Taiwanese actress Audrey Lin (林品彤) became the youngest-ever winner of the Best Leading Actress award for her emotionally moving performance in the drama Trouble Girl (小曉) by director Chin Chia-hua (靳家驊).
The 41-year-old Wu in Abang Adik portrays Abang (阿邦), a mute migrant worker who grew up in Kuala Lumpur as an orphan and seeks a stable life in the face of harsh reality.
Lin in Trouble Girl portrays a schoolgirl whose love-hate relationship with her mother becomes more tenuous after she discovers her mother is having an extramarital affair with her teacher.
Best Supporting Actress went to Beatrice Fang (方志友) for her performance in Day Off (本日公休).
The Best Animated Feature went to Pigsy (八戒) by Taiwanese director Chiu Li-wei (邱立偉). Set in the future where the world relies heavily on advanced technology, the film is a re-imagination of the Chinese classic A Journey to the West. A new resident of the “new world,” Pigsy discovers a plot by construction company owner Bull Demon King and must stop him from taking people’s lives.
The Best New Performer award went to Hong Kong actress Yoyo Tse (謝咏欣), 21, who in the drama Fly Me to the Moon (但願長久) portrays Yuen (子圓) who moves from Hunan to Hong Kong at the age of eight to reunite with her father, a drug addict who cannot seem to shake his addiction.
Saturday’s star-studded gala was graced by the presence of two of the biggest names in the film industry: Oscar-winning Taiwanese-American director Ang Lee (李安) and legendary Japanese director Takeshi Kitano, who presented awards.
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